De-Evolution of Polar Bears in Etüden im Schnee
Over the course of the Etüden im Schnee, we learn about the stories of three generations of polar bears. Throughout each section, the bears are able to share their own stories and struggles, but they differ in how they are able to communicate this information to humans. As the story progresses, and the polar bears become further removed from their ancestral past and native home of the North Pole, they start to resemble the polar bears of our own world.
The beginning of the book really confused me because I did not realize this was a world where animals and humans walked among each other (as one of my classmates described it, like BoJack Horseman.) As the grandmother describes her life as an author and how it’s impossible to find a good vodka in the city, I could imagine a Carrie Bradshaw type trying to make it in the Big Apple. The grandmother is also able to speak, as well as write in both Russian and German. Tawada did a wonderful job of personifying the grandmother so much that I often forgot that I was reading the words of a polar bear.
The grandmother is so personified that human rights activists take a real interest in her as a minority. She talks about how she’s not super interested in human right activism; however, the groups love her because she is a polar bear among other “majority” animals and humans. She thinks this is funny that she represents human rights, and she’s not even human.
The second section is when I started to notice this de-evolution of the polar bears. Toska’s communication skills are certainly not as advanced as her mother’s; she is only able to communicate to Barbara through dreams, and she cannot read nor write. Toska relies heavily on Barbara to share her story.
I find the cultural shift in part two also very interesting. Both women were famous polar bears, but rather than being famous for her intelligence, Toska was famous for her physical abilities. She gained her fame through doing everday things that humans can do: riding a tricycle, eating a sugar cube. I find it interesting that in a world where humans and animals can work together in an office, people are still entertained with a polar bear walking on two legs. I would pay a pretty penny to have a kangaroo do my taxes.
In the final section, Knut (the runt of the family) can communication only with other animals. His speaking skills are so remedial that he speaks in the third-person until halfway through the section when another bear teaches him first person. I don’t blame Knut for his lack of speaking skills because he is just a baby, but I find his “work” to be irritating. Knut is literally known for being CUTE!
This is frustrating because he is just as famous as his elders (if not more famous,) but he does it using only his good looks. His grandmother was able to read and write in both German and Russian, and she was still underappreciated by her superiors. Toska was a famous circus performer who took the hearts of the public through her captivating acts. Knut is obviously the most removed from his ancestral past, as he was born, raised and died in the Berlin Zoo; he is also the most de-evolved polar bear in the sense of communication skills.
Like the second section, I find it odd that this imaginary world has zoos. When do animals decided that they’d rather join the circus or the zoo than go to college and get a desk job? Does society choose their fates? As the story progresses, one would assume that each generation would evolve, at least that’s what my happy-ending-demanding self thinks, but this is a German story, so nothing ever has a happy ending.
